Fitch girls, Montville boys are the fastest of all
Ledyard — If there's ever a matter they feel needs discussing, the members of the Fitch High School girls' track and field team's 4x100-meter relay foursome hold meetings in senior Lily Johnson's car.
"We push each other. We're always right next to each other in workouts. We have a lot of inside jokes," Johnson said.
"Car meetings," sophomore Abby Rogers said with a smile, asked what the four do together outside of track.
On Saturday, they joined together to win their event at the 38th Ledyard Invitational Relays. Madison Powe, Janaya Burley, Johnson and Rogers won the 4x100 in 50.6 seconds, edging Eastern Connecticut Conference foe Plainfield (51.0), Sacred Heart Academy (51.1) and Berlin (51.9). Fitch was the fourth seed coming into the race.
Then Montville boys' 4x100 team of Nik Angell, Daltyn Butler, Greg Clark and Gennaro Davis came across the finish line first in 43.7 seconds, giving the ECC a sweep of the quickest events on the track.
Rogers was asked to describe her anchor leg, in which she pulled ahead. Johnson answered for her.
"It was great," Johnson said. "She always pushes through to win."
Some background on the Falcons: they were disqualified from the ECC Division I indoor track meet over the winter for a zone violation in the 4x180 relay, their signature
event indoors. They don't say who committed the violation, but take the blame collectively.
They were third in the 4x200 at the Class L state championship in 1:50.43, but finished seventh at the State Open in 1:49.13, missing qualifying for the New England championship meet by one spot. Ahead of them was Plainfield, which finished fourth in 1:48.12.
Translated, that means Fitch was pretty pleased with its result Saturday.
"This is our new order," Johnson said. "We practiced it after the last meet. It's similar to indoor. Before, I was the last leg, but I like the curve; I like working the curve."
"(Abby) never lets anyone pass her," Powe said of Rogers as the anchor. "... We have a lot of trust in each other."
Powe leads the group on the track. She was The Day's 2017 All-Area Girls' Indoor Track Athlete of the Year after winning ECC Division I titles in the 55 dash, long jump and 4x180 relay. During the 2018 indoor season, she was third individually in Class L in the 55 and fifth in the long jump. She was sixth in the State Open in the 55. Powe will attend Southern Connecticut State University.
Johnson, who provides the team's designated meeting spot, was fourth at this year's ECC indoor meet in the 55. She was also of one nine recipients in October of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, receiving the honor at a banquet held at the Mystic Marriott.
Rogers first became acquainted with her new teammates last season as a freshman, when she was crowned the league's 300-meter champion. Rogers is the tallest of the group at 5-foot-9.
"It's been great," Rogers said. "They helped me out. I fit right in."
Burley is a junior who was fifth in the ECC in the 55 indoors, giving the Falcons three of the eight finalists.
The Montville boys were also on a roll Saturday, helped by Davis, a track newcomer as a senior. Shortly after Angell, Butler, Clark and Davis won the 4x100, Butler, Clark, Nick Donnell and Davis won the 4x400, as well, in 3:32.9.
"Big schools take a lot of the events," said Clark, who also finished second individually in the javelin. "It's nice to pop in and take a couple."
Fitch's Sydney Comstock won the girls' pole vault with at 8 feet. Other local girls' winners were the St. Bernard 4x800 team of Brigid Kunka, Rachel Kunka, Serena Britner and Sophia Duhig (10:51.0), the East Lyme distance medley relay team of Karena Kung, Meghan McCauley, Phoebe Provencher and Alicia Lan (14:42.9), the Ledyard weight thrower's 4x100 relay of Isabelle Hammar, Natalie Poulton, Tajeah Winston and Miranda Chesnut (1:01.76), Montville's triple jump relay of Sheyenne Gillis, MacKenzie Clark and Sierra Talley (90-11.5), Waterford's high jump relay of Ellie Lokken, Sophia Podeszwa and Julia Karlberg (13-8) and East Lyme's shot put relay of Jamie Foster, Joyce Lin and Anha Tuttle (84-11.25).
Ledyard's Collin Wiltshire won the boys' triple jump with a leap of 42-5.75 and Montville's Jerrell Fitch won the long jump at 20-5.25. Other local boys' winners were the Ledyard weight thrower's relay of Benjamin Berlin, Mason Bickham, Nuriel Preciado and Harold Phillips (50.4), the Montville triple jump relay of Fitch, Julian Valdes and Marcus Velez (110-4.25), Fitch's pole vault relay of Ethan Alves, Alex Schwindt and Nick Luther (29-6), Fitch's discus relay of Thomas Joyner, William Dentch and Ryan Conley (353-6), Ledyard's javelin relay of Adam Crawford, Berlin and Kyle Krupansky (376-5) and Ledyard's long jump relay of James Smith, Stanley Green and Caden Foote (56-5.75).